Posts Tagged ‘alfa romeo’

RustyButTrusty on the Street #1 – Hilux and F12

August 15, 2013

To start what might become a new series of posts, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the more unusual vehicles seen on the streets in northern California. San Francisco and Oakland/Berkeley in particular are home to all kinds of oddball older cars, and we’ll get this started with a van and a truck (what!).

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This 1979 Alfa Romeo F12 diesel van recently returned to California, under the influence of Andrew Watry, keeper of the Alfa Romeo Berlina Register. Powered by a 1.8 liter Perkins diesel with 50hp, it’s Alfa Romeo’s interpretation of the VW bus, with a three-spoke steering wheel, twin pod gauge cluster, and Alfa handling. Built from 1967-83, this one is a series two van with the black plastic grill and adhesive sticker badging.

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Smog-free! 1975 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT (plus bonus Milano Silver!)

July 24, 2013

There were no 1975 Alfa Romeos offered for sale new in California. Alfa was still working on changes to its emissions systems, and didn’t have those ready in time, so was forced to continue sales of 1974 cars well into 1975. Can you imagine what that does to dealers? Could you imagine that happening nowadays? Meanwhile, all the other states got the new Alfetta GT, the new Alfetta sedan, and the updated spider with the big rubber bumpers (okay, maybe they weren’t really missing out on that last one!). Well, the irony is that these cars are once again desirable in California because they are a small group of Alfettas that don’t need to pass smog testing. Find this rare Alfetta in Everett near Seattle, WA for $1200.

1975 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT right rear

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2013 Alfa Convention Follow-Up – More Event Pics

July 17, 2013

Mostly RustyButTrusty is not a car show site – there are plenty of other sites where you can find pictures of shiny cars. However, for this case I’ll make an exception, mostly to drive the point home that you can amazingly *still* afford cars related to some of the shiny ones in this post, some of them so closely related that they have nearly the same engine and suspension. A prime example of this is this row of 4 Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Giulia Sprint Speciales – the number 81 car raced at Sebring back in the early 1960s. Not only that, the owner had driven it down from British Columbia with his wife and was doing the high performance driving school, time trials, and the concorso!

Alfa SS row with Sebring car

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